Week 6 Storytelling: The Kitty Kettle

An Antique Tea Kettle from Pinterest

 
There once was an old woman, Grammy Ronni, that collected tea kettles. She would go to any antique sale, garage sale, or estate sale that she could find. The old woman had a granddaughter that would accompany her to these sales and help her find the best kettles. The two had recently heard of a sale that would occur in a city not too far from where they lived and decided to go. Once they had arrived at the sale Grammy Ronni spotted a beautiful tea kettle. It was dark brown with light green swirls painted all over it. She immediately picked it up and paid for it. 

As the two women were driving back home the granddaughter thought she heard something rustle around in the back of the car. She looked in the backseat, but there was nothing but the small tea kettle wrapped in newspaper. She turned back around and decided that it must have been something outside of the car that she had heard.

Once the women arrived at Grammy Ronni's house, the granddaughter said goodbye and went to her own home. The old woman decided she would unpack her new kettle and use it to make her evening tea. She turned on the stove and carefully put the kettle on the stove top to warm the water. The old woman went to change clothes and when she returned, much to her surprise, there was a cat running around her apartment! She chased after the cat for several minutes and finally caught him! He was dark brown, just like the kettle, and had light green eyes. The old woman lectured the cat for running all over her nice home and almost knocking over her china cabinet that contained her tea kettle collection! After the cat calmed down, it returned to its kettle form.

Not being able to take care of a cat, the old woman immediately wanted to sell this new addition. The next day the old woman took the kettle to her local thrift store and sold it to the owner for ten dollars. The owner was surprised to see the old woman selling a kettle, but she simply told him that she already had one like it. So the owner took the kettle and placed it in the back, to be looked at later.

Finally the owner's lunch break came and he went to check on the new kettle. He was very surprised to see a cat running around his storage closet! After he had caught the cat, he put the cat into a small kennel to keep it safe. Yet as soon as he had shut the door, a new customer walked in. This customer was no ordinary customer, though! He had experience with transforming kettles. The customer noticed the cat in the kennel and asked the owner about it and its origins. The owner told the customer what he knew, and apologized for how crazy he must have sounded! The customer, much to the owner's surprise, told him how to control the cat!

So the next day the shop owner set up a little booth in his store. He decided he would show off the kitty kettle to his customers and make some money. The first few customers were in such awe that they told everyone they saw about the thrift store that had a tea kettle that could transform into a kitty! 

The owner made a lot of money over the course of a week and felt bad that he had taken such an opportunity away from the old woman. To repay her he decided to give her back the tea kettle and some of the money he had made from the kitty kettle. 

The old woman was very surprised to see the thrift store owner at her door the next day. She was even more surprised to see that he was returning the kitty kettle, filled with money! The owner apologized and explained what had happened after the woman had dropped the kettle off. He explained how the kitty kettle worked and returned back to his shop. The old woman was very grateful. Both the store owner and the old woman led happy, fulfilled lives and died feeling they had lived well. 

Author's Note:

I really enjoyed reading the Japanese Fairy Tales by Andrew Lang this week. I had a difficult time selecting which story to recreate, but I went with the story that introduces tanuki. Tanuki are Japanese raccoon dogs, and are considered very mischievous animals in Japanese Fairy Tales. They are featured in several of Lang's stories and can be very mean in some of them. But to me they are too cute not to love! The tale that I selected is titled The Magic Kettle and is about a magic tea kettle that turns into a tanuki. I thought it would be nice to 'Americanize' the story and change the tanuki to a cat. I also modernized the story and wanted to bring some references to things we are familiar with: estate sales, antique sales, and thrift shops! I love frequenting all of these so I thought it would be a fun tie-in of my own life. Although this is not a Grammy Ronni bedtime story, I thought this would fit in my Portfolio as it still has a bedtime story feel. I also like the tanuki so much that I couldn’t resist revisiting this tale to perfect it, so enjoy!

They're Real! Tanuki from dailyhaze

Week 6 Reading Diary: Japanese Fairy tales Lang (cont.)

For the second week I chose to read more from the Japanese Fairy Tales by Andrew Lang

This round of stories is off to a good start, more animal stories! I liked that this one was about dogs and cats fighting. I think that it is a cute rivalry but also shows how bravery can help any situation.

The next story has a more direct moral in the story. It is about a crab who takes care of her home and is wise to take a seed and let it grow into a tree for more food. The monkey steals food and is disrespectful, leaving the crab for dead. However, the crab and her friends get revenge on the monkey and kill him. Although it is a bit brutal for my tastes, it clearly shows the moral that those who give and are kind are rewarded and those who steal and are mean will be punished.

This third tale seems a little more on the cheesy side. I like that the kettle turns into a tanuki, which appears to be a very cute little raccoon dog, but the tale itself is a little overdone. The overall moral of this story however seems to be that being honest will bring you fortune and luck in your life. And both of the owners of the kettle live a long, happy life to prove that moral.

This next tale is also centered around tanuki. Although this time there is an evil tanuki who kills the mother fox. His son is able to deceive him however and revenge his mothers death. I liked this tale because it shows how cleverness is always useful, but one must must be careful with how confident they are and how prideful they become.

The fifth tale is also about tanukis (sensing a trend here) and they are apparently not always nice creatures! This one kills a mans wife and then eats her! A hare and the man plot revenge and eventually kill the tanuki. I think that this stories main point is to try and show that you must never trust tanuki! Although, I feel a little bad for the tanukis...

This last story is about a man who saves a turtle and is thanked by the turtle later by saving the man's life. The turtle then takes the man to a palace and meets a princess. This leads to the man marrying the princess. I liked this part because of the illustrations shown in the story. I think that it is sad though because the man doesn't realize that his parents have died because he has stayed underwater for so long! This is truly about love and I think that it makes me think about spending more time with my parents because you never know what could happen in life!

The illustration from the last tale from the stories

Week 6 Reading Diary: Japanese Fairy Tales Lang

The first tale about the two frogs reminds me of the city mouse, country mouse folk tale. Although it also has a moral that sometimes your perspective can change everything!

The next tale about the stonecutter had a very good moral as well. It shows a man how he should value his normal life, because it can quickly be taken for granted.

After the stonecutter was a story about a woman who had great beauty. It is a reminder to stay humble and that good things will come your way in time. I liked this story because it showed how hard work is valued just as well as outer beauty.

The next story is about an envious neighbor. I like that it starts with a dog, because I love animals and love when they are included in tales. However, I was very unhappy that the dog was killed by the evil neighbor. I think that the overall moral of this story is if you are patient and treat others with kindness you will be rewarded, whereas if you allow your hatred to overflow you will be punished.

This fifth story is about a man and his wife, who is very greedy. He saves a little sparrow (again animals in the story makes me happy!) and is later rewarded for his kindness. The sparrow turns into a woman, who later offers him a present at her home. He takes a small chest and it is full of gold and jewels. The wife seeing this sets back to the sparrow/woman's home and takes the largest chest, but is rewarded with poisonous serpents instead of gold. The moral of this story similar to the one above, appears to be if you let your greed and hatred consume you then you will be punished for it.

The last story of this unit was about two cats. I particularly liked this story because it discusses the love story of two cats who find a home with a princess. I think that I like this story mostly because it is the only true love story of this batch of readings and one of the first true love stories I have read in our readings total. The two cats looked so happy in some of the images for this story!

A picture from the cat story from the stories

Japanese Fairy Tales by Andrew Lang